SPRINGFIELD -- Luis Teixeira Jr. of Westfield must serve three years in jail for setting fire to a man’s car parked outside his ex-girlfriend’s Pochassic Street home in Westfield.

According to Assistant District Attorney Anthony Gulluni, the accelerant-fueled fire “became almost an inferno” and melted vinyl siding on a nearby house.

Police and fire responded as did the state Fire Marshall’s Office, he said.

Defense lawyer Mark L. Hare had asked Hampden Superior Court Judge Peter A. Velis to sentence Teixeira, 23, to probation without incarceration so Teixeira can continue to be an involved father to his two young children.

Gulluni had asked for a two to three year state prison sentence followed by probation for Teixeira, who pleaded guilty to arson of a dwelling house and burning a motor vehicle.

Velis opted to give Teixeira a two year sentence to the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow for the arson, followed by a one year sentence there.

Velis said Teixeira can begin his sentence in a week, after the defense asked that he be able to spend more time with his children.

Hare said the ex-girlfriend, the mother of Teixeira’s children, was in the courtroom in support of the request Teixeira get only probation. It is the same ex-girlfriend whose male friend’s car Teixeira set fire to, he said.

The same charges remain pending for a second man, David Hawley, 23, of Westfield.

Gulluni said on Aug. 27, 2011, Teixeira had been drinking heavily with Hawley and they walked by the home of Teixeira’s ex-girlfriend and saw the man’s car. He said they tried to light it on fire with kindling wood, but that didn’t work.

They then found a gas can and poured fuel on and around the car, causing it to go up in flames.

Hare said Teixeira is a hard worker and very involved father but “a combination of male bravado with alcohol just pushed things out of control.”